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BUELL.

TOOL HANDLE.

No. 289,501, Patented Dec. 4, 1883. Q

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. WITNESSES I NITED- STATES PATENT FFICE,

nDe-An BUELL, on CLINTON, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND ANDREW L. BUELL, or SAME PLACE.

TOOL-HANDLE SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 289,501, dated December 4,, 1883.

- Application filed October 11, 1883. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDGAR BUELL, of Clinton, in the county of Middlesex and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tool Handles, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has reference to an improved tool-handle for screw-drivers andsimilar im-. plements; andthe invention consists of aliandle provided with a socket made of two jaws, one fixed to the handle, the other movable, both having angular tapering recesses, widest at the bottom, and of an exterior sleeve by which the jaws of the socket are rigidly applied to the shank of the tool, which shank, like the recess of the jaws, is made tapering, diminishing in width from the butt-end upward.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents a side elevation of my improved tool-handle. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section of the same. Figs. 3 and a are detail side views of the fixed and movable jaws that form the socket for the shank of the tool, and Fig. 5 represents detail side views of the locking-sleeve.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

Ain the drawings represents a tool-handle, which is by preference made hollow, so as to serve for the storage of a number of different tools in the same. A socket, B, which is formed of a fixed jaw, 11, that is rigidly secured byits shank b into the handle A, and of a loose movable jaw, 6 serves for taking hold of the shanks of the different tools to be used in connection with the handle. the movable jaw b are provided in the inner face sides with angular recesses h of tapering shape, which recesses are wider at their lower end and diminishing toward the ends of the jaws, so as to receive and hold the correspondingly-tapering butt-end g of the shank of the tool 0. The loose jaw b is provided,.near its butt-end, with a transverse recess, (2', that fits over a transverse tongue, d, of the fixed jaw b, as shown clearly in Fig. 2.1 The loose jaw b" has by this tongue-and-groove joint with the fixed jaw b a certain play, so that its recessed end can be moved close to or away from The fixed jaw Z) and r the fixed jaw. A cylindrical sleeve, D, is fitted around the cylindrical butt-ends of the jaws b 6 and adapted to press by its beveled inner edge on conically-fiaring exterior portions, 6 e, of the jaws b b". The sleeve D is provided at diametrically-opposite points with longitudinal wings or flanges fby which the sleeve can be taken off by the fingers and readily turned around its axis. The lower circuinference of the sleeve D has a spiral incli nation of slow pitch, which begins at aprojection, f, in line with one of the wings f and terminates at a notch, f, at one side of the same wing f, as shown clearly in Figs. 1 and 5. The spirally-rising edge of the sleeve D moves along a fixed stop-pin, f, of the fixed jaw b when the sleeve is turned around its axis, whereby the jaws b b are either pressed firmly together or released from each other, so as to admit of the lateral play of the movable jaw 11 within the sleeve D. The shank of the hook O is inserted into the socket formed by the jaws b when they are released from the pressure of the sleeve D, after which the shank is firmly locked by the jaws of the socket B by turning the sleeve along the stop-pin f and pressing it tightly against the conically-tapering portions 6 of the jaws, as shown in Fig. 1. By turning the sleeve in opposite direction the jaws b I: release the shank of the tool, which is then replacedinto the hollow handle.

I am aware that a winged sleeve moving by its lower spirally-inclined edge along a fixed pin so as to apply a movable jaw against a fixed one, which jaws form a socket for the tool-shank, is well known, and I do not claim this feature, broadly but in the shank-sockets heretofore in use the tapering shank end diminished in thickness toward the butt-end, to which the socket-recesses of the jaws correspond'in taper, while in my improved socket the tool-shank is made thickest. at the buttend and decreases in thickness toward ,the middle partof the shank, as shown in Fig. 2, so that when the butt-end is inserted into the recessesofthejaws havingacorrespondinggimlet, brad-awl, or other tool, it cannot be withdrawn fromthe so cket while in use, but is rigidly held by the grip of the jaws until released by loosening the locking-sleeve from the jaws and spreading them sufficiently apart to admit of the passage of the butt-end of the tool-shank. Having thus described myinvention, I claim 5 as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent Ihe combination of a tool-handle, A, afixed jaw, 12, inserted into said handle, and a movable jaw, b jointed to the fixed jaw, each jaw having asocket-recess, If, diminishing in width IO from its lowest point toward the edge, and a (sonically-tapering exterior portion, 0, with a winged inolosing-sleeve, D, having a spirallyinclined base-edge and stop f, a stop-pin, f,

of the fixed jaw b, and an interchangeable too],

0, having a shank that diminishes in thick- I 5 ness from the butt-end upward, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed my name in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

EDGAR BUELL.

IVitnesses:

J AMES M. VALLES, PAUL GoErnL. 

